


[meta] ML snippet collection

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Allergies, Archived From Tumblr, Designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Female Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Meta, Miraculous History, Miraculous Side Effects, Nonbinary Anansi (fka Nora) Césaire, Nonfiction, Polytheism, Rabbit Miraculous, Racism, Stressed Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Time Travel Dangers, Trans Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Transphobia, Voice Actor Adrien Agreste
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:01:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 8,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23036725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Check chapter title for topic and original posting date. Links to original posts are in each chapter's opening note.I am exceedingly grateful to theTumblr Original Post Finderfrom JetBlackCode for making it easier to track down theMiraculous Ladybugmeta archived here.Thing is, though, by its nature it only finds posts where I am the original poster. And I know for a fact a lot of my ML meta on Tumblr is stuff I added when reblogging whichever post inspired the thoughts. Does anyone know how, short of scrolling through my Tumblr forever, I might be able to find posts where I amnotthe OP but Ididadd something when I reblogged? Bonus points if I can limit it, as the above link allows, to reblogs where I used a particular tag.
Comments: 149
Kudos: 148
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	1. 2019 Feb 6: Adrien must have watched Sailor Moon, right?

**Author's Note:**

> Check chapter title for topic and original posting date. Links to original posts are in each chapter's opening note.
> 
> * * *
> 
> I am exceedingly grateful to the [Tumblr Original Post Finder](https://jetblackcode.com/TumblrOriginalPostFinder) from JetBlackCode for making it easier to track down the _Miraculous Ladybug_ meta archived here.
> 
> Thing is, though, by its nature it only finds posts where I am the original poster. And I know for a fact a lot of my ML meta on Tumblr is stuff I added when reblogging whichever post inspired the thoughts. Does anyone know how, short of scrolling through my Tumblr forever, I might be able to find posts where I am _not_ the OP but I _did_ add something when I reblogged? Bonus points if I can limit it, as the above link allows, to reblogs where I used a particular tag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Feb 6](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/182619056410/given-gabriel-agreste-being-his-usual-charming)

Given Gabriel Agreste being his usual charming self?

Given we don't know much about Émilie except that whatever happened to her happened less than a year before the Christmas episode but (no more than four months before the Christmas episode, if Origins covered the first two days of a Sept-start school year) Origins was the first time Adrien got anything resembling freedom and therefore Émilie was all aboard the "keep Adrien on lockdown for his own protection" train?

Given Adrien canonically—okay, Word of Astruc afaik, but still—is a major anime fan?

(Given that Adrien is a protagonist of a magical girl anime? Not that this is necessarily something he knows, but we should expect some Genre Savvy from him, right?)

And given how very kind and generous Adrien actively tries to be?

What's the betting Adrien is modeling his notion of how to be a good person largely on _Sailor Moon_ 's Tsukino Usagi?


	2. 2019 Feb 18: exactly how old is Marianne Lenoir?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Feb 18](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/2087223.html). CN Nazis, both historical and present-day.

Either I'm badly misreading something, or the canonical timeline and actual historical events have little in common, or the opening scene of "Backwarder" is set during the Nazi occupation of Paris. 1940–1944.

Let's say 1944, even though how Marianne is talking suggests earlier. Let's also assume the episode is set in the present day, more or less, thus 2019.

1944 is 75 years before 2019.

I don't know how to judge people's ages real well. Doesn't matter if they're artistic renderings, live-action, or real-life. Given, however, the explicit context of the dynamic between Master Fu and Marianne—and let's just, like, pretend Master Fu hasn't got a canonical age; I have a theory about that, given the documented age of the radiated tortoise Tu'i Malila in context of the Turtle Miraculous, but _still_ —I cannot accept Marianne being any younger, in that first scene, than twenty.

So at the absolute youngest, Marianne in the rest of the episode is 95. 99 if she was twenty in that scene and it's set in 1940 instead of 1944. And if she was older than twenty, well then.

It isn't impossible that a ninety-five-year-old woman could be as physically capable as Marianne demonstrates herself. (We're ignoring the parts of the episode where she was akumatized, too.) It's just not likely. It gets less likely as her estimated age in the present day increases.

…I am _all for_ media that aligns Nazis against Our Heroes. More so as today's Nazis get bolder about being the new improved version of WWII's, and more blatant about the connection. And I'm dying to see fic starring Marianne Lenoir, Nazi-slayer.

But my theory about Master Fu's aging isn't something we can apply to Marianne.

It's not impossible that this timeline bit works as presented. It's just not likely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suggested in comments: the era we're supposed to be envisioning in those flashbacks is WWI, because zeppelins. (I think the clothing styles suggest WWII, but I do not actually know anything about anything on that point.)
> 
> That's 1914–1918.
> 
> That's not an improvement.


	3. 2019 Mar 11: the ancient Kemetic Ladybug and Black Cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The source post is privacy-locked on my Dreamwidth and it shall remain that way. But I am posting this snippet on 2020 Jul 23 and I haven't actually written the thing using this bit of research yet, so what good is it doing me if no one gets to see it?

Here, I'm working off Paul Dickson's _[Dictionary of Middle Egyptian](https://archive.org/details/DictionaryOfMiddleEgyptian)_ and [the Manuel de Codage transliteration scheme](https://web.archive.org/web/20190401132750/http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/people/transliteration.htm). That latter uses, for instance, capital _S_ to represent the first consonant sound in English 'ship', more or less, where lowercase _s_ is instead approximately the first consonant sound in English 'sip'. Capital _A_ is a glottal stop, like the ʻokina in "Hawaiʻi", and lowercase _x_ is like the _ch_ in German 'bach' or Scottish 'loch'. And vowels didn't get written down hardly at all. So I'm giving the spelling of each ancient Egyptian word both as transliterated in MdC style and as something that's hopefully an intuitive phonetic spelling to English-speaking people, using vowels that sound good to me. (Nobody's entirely confident of how anything in this language was pronounced _anyway_.)

Assuming that both the Ladybug of Kemet (as seen in canon) and the Black Cat of Kemet are women (because I can, that's why): my ideas of what these two Miraculous wielders called themselves, or were called by others:

dSr: red  
xprr: scarab  
km: black  
mAt: lioness

Desher Kheperr: Red Scarab  
Kemi Meʻit: Black Lioness

…these are horrible transliterations and botched pronunciations, and I know it


	4. 2019 Mar 12: Adrien is a voice actor because…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Mar 12](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/2101945.html)

What I want to know is why Adrien voiced Chat Noir in [Watsonian] Astruc's _Miraculous_ animated movie to begin with.

Like. Not even from a "this could fuck over my secret identity so hard" perspective. (Though that should also have been on his mind. And if the studio was determined to have Adrien voice the character and nothing Adrien did could get him out of it, then Chat Noir should have made a public stink about the project being unauthorized and gotten it cancelled by studio legal. But let's skip that for now, along with all other consideration of in-universe legalities, to say nothing of chronology.)

From a _the movie's creative team_ perspective!

He's a model. Except for "Horrificator"—and let's be honest, that doesn't count for multiple reasons—and possibly other Nino-directed projects, he has no acting on his resume whatsoever. And all the expertise he could apply cross-medium is visual. But this project is animated, not live-action; they're using his voice.

He's what, fourteen? Fifteen? Different labor laws probably apply to Adrien than to adult VAs, anyway, which the studio probably sees as enough added inconvenience to preemptively rule out sufficiently young VAs. (Also: Bryce Papenbrook, Adrien's English VA, was born in 1986. If ML were a live-action, Adrien would probably be portrayed by someone fifteen to twenty, to get something approaching the right look; since it's animated, the VA can be mid-thirties and no one has reason to complain.)

He probably gets in enough shit for missing photoshoots to go actually be Chat Noir, and because his father runs the company he's doing the photoshoots for, nobody can fire him. Meanwhile, the animation studio, unless I missed something important here, is not taking Gabriel Agreste's opinions into consideration on Human Resources decisions. They have zero reason to tolerate his absenteeism. And he should have known this at the start. The studio might have known none of this before hiring him, might have known some (depends whether they asked anyone he works with about his work ethic), but they would definitely have found out in a moderate hurry! Why wouldn't they fire him in favor of someone more reliable?

(In other news, I think Adrien would love to join drama club, but he's Chat Noir and he has to be responsible sometimes, and even small-scale theatrical productions are huge time commitments that he really wouldn't want to flake on—except because he's Chat Noir, he knows sooner or later he'd have to. Let us not discuss the difficulty of getting parental permission to participate! So he's just gonna…not go there.)

Like. Adrien as a voice actor in anything is just…not a decision that makes sense in the first place. Nor one that makes sense to stick with very long. On the studio end.

And also! We have seen Adrien bail on photoshoots to go be Chat Noir! ("Stormy Weather" and "Gigantitan" spring immediately to mind.) We haven't seen him bail on other modeling work that I recall, but only because Style Queen didn't give him time to run! We have seen him bail on school, fencing, piano practice, the train ride with his father, stuff with friends—basically if we have ever seen Adrien with a time commitment, we have seen him abandon it because akuma! We have _never_ seen him bail on a recording session! It has got to take enough time to record all this audio to render it improbable at best that he has never had to ditch this job for the important one!


	5. 2019 Mar 22: yeah, Astruc's pretty racist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Mar 22](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/183641706855/small-oblivio-spoiler-here-but-the-post-isnt)

Me: I don't think the Kubdels are Egyptian, because given Jalil's area of academic interest, that sounds stereotypical in a distinctly racist way. Granted, Sabine's dress is the wrong way round (nothing I would have noticed unprompted, but I gather it's glaring to people who grew up in Chinese culture) and "Kung Food" is a thing that happened, so it is possible I'm giving ML creative too much credit.

Also Me, in horrified realization, after the other side of this conversation notes Anansi's Caribbean origins1 as supporting evidence that Alya's family is from Martinique:

They themed two of the five Césaire akumas2 to date, encompassing three of the six Césaires, after folk stories in Martinique. I am not sure what sapotis are supposed to be in RL terms3, but the impression I have from ML is mischief demons—obviously unflattering.

They themed two of the said five akumas after _animals_. Anansi is a spider deity, but Cernunnos and Herakles have come up in canon-adjacent official material as Miraculous wielders, without apparent acknowledgement of the shitstorm that would arise if they did the precise same thing with Jesus Christ4. White folks are often happy to assert, confirm, accept, whatever, the divine status of Celtic and Greek deities—but deities from cultures of color? Not so much. (And I know how much the Greeks didn't care about skin tone or ethnic origin, but most people who don't have particular interest in both modern sociocultural dynamics and ancient Greece don't know and don't care, and do think the Greeks were and by extension the Greek Gods are white! It really doesn't help that all the paintings of Andromeda depict a white woman even though Ovid among others point blank said she's Ethiopian!) So in this case I think the relevant half of "spider deity" is "spider". And theming the Miraculous heroes of any color after animals is not a get-out-of-critique-free card for turning people of color into animal villains.

And the two remaining Césaire akumas were both, in part or in whole, Alya. Who as a key secondary character has an actual personality, instead of an ethnic origin and a character trait or two.

_I am giving ML creative too much credit._

1 Anansi is West African in origin, but then so are a whole lot of people in the Caribbean.

2 Six Césaire akumas if we count Rena Rage. I am unwilling to count Rena Rage as a Césaire akuma because, until "Miracle Queen", none of the characters bar Marinette, Alya, and Nino knew that. However, 'rage' does rather evoke the Angry Black Woman stereotype.

3 [Definitely mischievous spirits](https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/caribbean-folklore-papa-bois-silk-cotton-trees-spirits-and-beliefs/79222/6), not malign.

4 In light of Astruc's tweet to the tune of Jesus wielded _some_ Miraculous, just not the _Ladybug_ Miraculous…


	6. 2019 May 9: wonder what happens when the Ladybug Miraculous gets misused…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 May 9](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/184775412705/wonder-what-happens-when-the-ladybug-miraculous)

Imagine: The viciousness of Ebola. The contagiousness of measles. And the mutability of the common flu.

(Congratulations, you won _Plague Inc._ )


	7. 2019 Jun 5: the meaning of Marinette's name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Jun 15](https://allthemiraculous.dreamwidth.org/9176.html)

People keep saying Marinette's name means "one who rises". Because in conjunction with her father's surname and occupation, it's a pun.

[Behind The Name](https://www.behindthename.com/name/marinette) says "Marinette" is a diminutive of "Marine", the French feminine of "Marinus", from the Roman family name of the same spelling (give or take the U-V distinction), which is derived either from Latin "marīnus" meaning "of the sea" or from the Roman family name "Marius", which is from either Latin "mās, maris" meaning "man" or from whatever the etymological root of the name "Mars" is if "mās" isn't it.

Other baby name websites, such as [First Names Meanings](http://www.first-names-meanings.com/name/name-marinette.html), say "Marinette" means "one who rises" from Hebrew. No further details given.

Behind The Name may be operating on incomplete data, but the closest Hebrew name it gives to "Marinette" is "Margalit", which [isn't Hebrew in origin](https://www.behindthename.com/element/margarites/tree) and if Tom and Sabine wanted to name their daughter from the Greek for "pearl" then surely she'd be "Marguerite" or "Margot".

While it is certainly possible I'm missing something: if the pun reading of "Marinette" is valid, shouldn't I be able to find a Hebrew word that both [translates to "rise"](https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-hebrew/rise) and transliterates to something with _some_ spelling resemblance to "Marinette"?

[Conclusion drawn in post comments: Everyone who says 'Marinette' means 'one who rises' is in fact talking bullshit. That said, if—as is possible—I did more research than Thomas Astruc, that may still be the intended meaning.]


	8. 2019 Jul 14: "Gorizilla" was a setup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Jul 14](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/186284502595/it-seems-unlikely-gabriel-agreste-owns-the-literal)

It seems unlikely Gabriel Agreste owns the literal only copy of Émilie Agreste's _Solitude_. To begin, I don't think the movie theater and Adrien's home setup use the same media format. That Adrien has had no luck getting his own copy, I believe: if no one's seeding the torrent and ~~Nathalie bribes everyone he tries buying the DVD from to cancel the order on their end~~ no one has a DVD for sale, then he's SOL. Which would only, given the emotional importance of the film to Adrien, make him more determined to seize any opportunity to see it.

Weird, then, that one theater, close enough to Adrien's home he can be confident in his sneaking skills to get him there unnoticed, would play _one_ showing of the movie, on a day when Adrien's latest ad campaign is due to drop. Which is to say, a day when Adrien's fans can be expected to be frighteningly, if not _dangerous-to-Adrien_ -ly, over-the-top.

A day when Adrien sneaking out might really _upset his bodyguard_.


	9. 2019 Jul 20: defining deuterocanon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Jul 20](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/186426956245/xthreeravensx-do-the-ml-character-instagram)

> [**xthreeravensx**](https://xthreeravensx.tumblr.com) : do the ml character instagram accounts count as canon

Depends. Are the Books of Tobit and Judith, and the stories of Susanna and of Bel and the Dragon in the Book of Daniel, Christian Bible canon?

Serious question. _Relevant_ question. "Canon" was originally a religious term; outside fandom and literary academia, it still is. Protestants say those stories aren't canon. Catholics say they are. Bibles meant for both markets label those sections "deuterocanonical": 'deutero-' is 'second', from Greek, the same way 'proto-' is 'first'. Neither Catholics nor Protestants say the Book of Leviticus is or could be anything _but_ canon, though I should note I've never heard of any Christians of either sort who pay attention to the prohibition therein of mixed-fiber fabrics.

(Have heard a lot of Christians of both sorts say that got retconned by Peter's vision in Acts, without any acknowledgement that the same retcon means shut up about the Levitical prohibition of gay sex. Jewish perspectives? I'm sorry, who? (Anyway, anyone who reads that queer-friendly _must_ be wrong.) No, I don't remember anything in Matthew about hypocrisy…)

A theological argument based on Bel and the Dragon is therefore going to get a lot farther with Catholics than Protestants. Because the Protestant opinion is, that story is essentially really early fanon. Kind of like Dante's _Inferno_ , or _Paradise Lost_.

The official ML comics? Deuterocanon. The webisodes? Deuterocanon. Anything Astruc says on Twitter, or Zag on Instagram, or any panelist at SDCC? Deuterocanon. The official character Instagrams? Deuterocanon. Use them if you like. Don't if you can't or would rather not. Take what you like and ignore the rest. It isn't as though we don't play favorites with the aired episodes, which everyone agrees are canonical whether we want to be or not.


	10. 2019 Aug 27: why s3 marinette is almost at her breaking point: an essay in four parts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Aug 27](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/187312644585/why-s3-marinette-is-almost-at-her-breaking-point)

_on hawkmoth and mayura:_

starting the moment Heroes' Day failed, Hawkmoth has been running an attrition strategy:

Gigantitan 5 and M. Pigeon 32? Ladybug and Chat Noir may be bored of these, but they have to take them as seriously as any other akuma attack; meanwhile, Hawkmoth sends out the butterfly and goes to take a nap

Ladybug and Chat Noir know Hawkmoth by now, and Hawkmoth knows them, but they _don't_ know Mayura; she may not be able to take the field often, but (1) when she does, it complicates the fight in several ways (2) since Ladybug and Chat Noir do not know why she appears when she does or why she does not appear more often, they have to worry about Mayura as constantly as they worry about Hawkmoth

I'd bet there's fewer days on average between attacks in S3 than there were earlier in the series

Hawkmoth and Mayura are also trying to get hold of other Miraculouses and to tempt Queen Bee to defect; this demonstrably hasn't gotten anywhere yet but is clearly intended to put more wielders on their side of the chessboard and fewer on Ladybug and Chat Noir's

Puppeteer 2 and Gamer 2.0 were trying to overwhelm them with volume of opponents, same as Heroes' Day was

Stormy Weather 2 was trying to overwhelm them with sheer force

.

and this strategy of wearing Ladybug and Chat Noir down until they are too worn out to keep fighting?

it's _working_

it is esp plain in Miraculer and Gamer 2.0 that it is _working_

* * *

_on personal lives_

Adrien must be pretending to have more work/family commitments than he has, and then minimally committing to friend stuff and claiming work/family commitments to explain why

not sure how he's getting away with this on the work/family end except bc boss's son?

(insert mini rant about Animaestro here, highlight to VA Adrien)

but since Adrien's friends and teachers all know how unreasonably busy Gabriel keeps him, no one is blaming Adrien for making few commitments and sometimes ditching those he does make

Adrien's own reputation is taking no hits here

.

Marinette, however, keeps committing to things, and then bailing on those commitments, with transparently poor excuses or none at all

and where Adrien would and does happily abandon everything his father makes him do, Marinette _wants_ to do many of the things she has to ditch for Ladybug business

so she keeps dropping things she enjoys, and _lying_ about it

(Marinette, remember, hates liars)

and because Hawkmoth is escalating, Marinette's pattern of committing, ditching, and lying is only getting more evident

(Marinette hates _liars_ )

* * *

_on alya et al_

Alya does not know _why_ Marinette commits, ditches, and lies

only that Marinette has been doing that as long as Alya has known her, and it's getting worse

Alya is entirely within her rights to be about done with Marinette's bullshit

so is everyone else, though the classmates who knew Marinette pre-Origins may know this isn't how Marinette used to be

not convinced of that, though

not convinced Marinette was any more than vaguely friendly acquaintances with _anybody_ pre-Origins

we do know from Reflekta that Chloé, Sabrina, Nathaniel, Rose, Juleka, Max, and Kim were in Marinette's class the previous year, and we know from Origins that Marinette and Chloé were in the same class the preceding two years as well

but that doesn't mean anyone currently in Marinette's class _did_ know her well enough pre-Origins to know that commit-ditch-lie did not used to be her thing, only that at least half her current classmates _maybe could have_ known her well enough to etc

but it doesn't really matter, does it?

as long as Marinette refuses—and she is _entirely justified_ in her refusal! Hawkmoth made an explicit point, on Heroes' Day, of targeting Audrey and André Bourgeois and Butler Jean in order to hurt Queen Bee, precisely because knowing Queen Bee is Chloé Bourgeois meant knowing who Queen Bee loves!—

as long as Marinette refuses to tell anyone who is under Ladybug's mask, _no one_ will know that Marinette's commit-ditch-lie pattern is part and parcel of—an inevitable consequence of—Marinette being Ladybug without abandoning being Marinette

as long as no one knows _why_ Marinette's bullshit, their being frustrated with Marinette's bullshit is only to be expected

and Alya has almost certainly been getting the worst of Marinette's bullshit all along

if Alya is reconsidering friendship with Marinette on those grounds, I can hardly blame her

* * *

_on lila_

but those grounds aren't the only reasons Alya has to reconsider friendship with Marinette, are they?

Alya likes Lila

Alya, after the interview in Volpina, has staked at least some of her professional reputation on Lila

as far as Alya knows, Marinette has no reason to dislike Lila, except that Lila was talking with Adrien the day of Volpina, and Marinette flipped out about Adrien/Lila potential

and yet Alya knows—they all know, they've all been there—Marinette has been trying to catch Lila out during a lot of Lila's video calls with the rest of the class

since Adrien hasn't said anything to anyone about his perspective on Volpina—and if how Lila behaves was pinging him at the time as danger just like Gabriel (or, I'm increasingly convinced, just like Émilie), then I honestly cannot blame him for applying the only survival strategy he has to keep himself and, as of Chameleon, Marinette as safe from Lila as he can get them—

and since Marinette doesn't want to bring the big guns to bear on Lila—and let's be honest, a public statement from Jagged Stone to the effect of "who's this Lila clown?" _would_ get a lot of social media backlash, most of it pointed at Lila—

and since Ladybug and Chat Noir have apparently not said anything to anyone on the matter

no one is backing Marinette's claims here

_no one_

to Alya, re Lila? Marinette legitimately looks like the bad guy here

which makes it easy for Lila, now doesn't it?

because Lila did say she would turn all of Marinette's friends against her

Lila would like to start with Adrien— _did_ start with Adrien—but she's having trouble snaring him for some reason

guess the name of the friend it would next most hurt Marinette to lose?


	11. 2019 Sep 3: the implications of gender-neutral designs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Sep 3](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/187469326810/marinettes-designs-are-pointedly-gender-neutral)

Marinette's designs are pointedly gender-neutral and thus implicitly targeted at nonbinary people, pass it on


	12. 2019 Sep 19: Ladynoir dynamic: beauty, brains, brawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Sep 19](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/187824700600/ladybug-and-chat-noir-play-fight-all-the-time-over)

Ladybug and Chat Noir play-fight all the time over which of them is the brains of this operation and which is the brawn

(this usually shakes out to she's the brains, he's the brawn, but how the argument goes tends to depend on where on the cocky to timid-slash-self-deprecating scale they're each falling that day)

they sometimes seriously fight over which of them is the beauty

(they both honestly think it's the other one, but neither is willing to concede out loud that they themselves are not)


	13. 2019 Oct 7: fannish attitude re Astruc's attitude re religion vis-à-vis Christianity and various polytheisms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Oct 7](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/188206887450/all-yall-who-find-it-distressing-that-astruc-says). I have at least one earlier meta post addressing [the same Astruc tweet](https://web.archive.org/web/20191005230503/https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1180617131630698497), but it's definitely one of the ones I added to the conversation when reblogging.

all y'all who find it distressing that Astruc says Jesus was a Miraculous wielder, who did not and _do_ not find it distressing that Astruc has previously said the same of Cernunnos, Herakles, and Sun Wukong?

speaking as a polytheist?

 _noted_.


	14. 2019 Nov 1: five Adrien Agreste headcanons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Nov 1](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/188754239035/adrien-agestre)

* this isn't what he meant when he started out (he was honestly just taking advantage of how nobody is going to frown at Chat Noir for exuberance), but by now he is _absolutely_ leaning into the image of Chat Noir as bold, loud, and never met a subtlety in his life unless maybe one means the fancy-dinner edible decorations

* because by now he's realized that with a little premeditation and stealth, Cataclysm is the perfect murder weapon

* and since Chat Noir probably cannot produce an alibi without exposing his secret identity (or making Rena Rouge or Bunnyx an accessory), making it look ridiculous on the face of it that Chat Noir could kill someone without all of Paris knowing it is in fact his best possible defense

* which matters because Paris's safety (or Ladybug's) may at some point depend on making someone, someone they can't _prove_ to the satisfaction of a court of law is too dangerous to leave free, quietly disappear

* though if Lila hurts Ladybug or Marinette _one_ more time…well, he probably still won't _do_ anything without Ladybug's approval, but…


	15. 2019 Nov 19: what crimes can Hawkmoth be charged with?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Nov 19](https://allthemiraculous.dreamwidth.org/14542.html); the link is to the original Dreamwidth post I replied to.

Sexual assault (Zombizou, Chameleon, Oblivio, Puppeteer 2, possibly others I forget). A whole lot of physical assaults. A number of kidnappings.

Attempted theft (assorted Miraculouses, maybe more). At least one completed theft: Fu's tablet, and the translations would be Fu's intellectual property, though he may have connived to make the IP rights Marinette's, and depending on how they came into his possession, possibly also the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses and the grimoire.

A whole lot of attempted murders and at least one attempted genocide. I'm not sure if there's an attempted destruction of property, or if actual murder, genocide, or destruction-of-property charges would stick—though the prosecution's argument should be that neither Hawkmoth's charges nor total sentence should be reduced on account of Ladybug mitigating the effects of his actions.

Terroristic threats, of course.

If the courts are aware Nooroo and Duusu exist, then whatever charges apply to enslavement.

Accessory to anything Nathalie, Lila, Chloé, and any other knowing and willing co-conspirators get charged with for their respective voluntary actions on his behalf. (Nathalie gets accessory to everything Gabriel gets. Anyone less intimately involved gets accessory only to the parts they helped with. I think Gorilla is in the clear.)

I think emotional damages might be civil, not criminal?

And on top of all that, he's a child abuser, he may be legally responsible for whatever happened to Émilie, and hell, maybe there's tax fraud. Company as rich as Gabriel's supposed to run, there's probably tax fraud!


	16. 2019 Nov 18: suggestions for trans girl!Chat Noir's name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Nov 18](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/189162978470/any-suggestions-for-trans-girlchat-noirs-name-i)

I've been going with Chatonne Noire. Both "Chatte" and "Minette" reportedly too loudly evoke a dirty pun.

For the artist formerly known as Adrien:

• Catherine (French pronunciation specifically, because cat)  
• Valérie (courageous)  
• Sophie (wisdom)  
• Amanda or Amandine (lovable)  
• Aimée (beloved)  
• Léonne (lion)  
• Mélanie (black)  
• Aurélie (golden)

I would also suggest Félicie (lucky), and I gave her that name in a couple drafts I haven't posted, because of PV Felix—except then we found out Adrien canonically has a cousin Félix


	17. 2019 Nov 25: didn't ANY of these kids have friends preseries?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Nov 25](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/189296631280/questions-i-dont-think-weve-explored-before)

We know Adrien didn't have friends before Origins, bar Chloé, because at least one of his parents is a bag of dicks. That's why Nino's his best friend: Ladybug aside, Nino was the first to try to befriend him, and the one who put the most effort into it.

We've concluded Marinette didn't have friends before Origins because she's multiply neurodivergent and a victim of bullying. That's why Alya's her best friend: Alya was the first to try to befriend her, and Chat Noir aside, the one who put the most effort into it.

We know Alya first met anyone in the cast, bar her family, in Origins at the earliest; we don't know why she's new to the school.

We know Nino _isn't_ new to the school, but he used to sit in the back, probably with his headphones on at every possible moment.

…Why is Marinette _Alya's_ best friend? Especially early in the series, why don't we see any indication that Alya has anyone from her old school she keeps up with?

And why is Adrien _Nino's_ best friend? Why wasn't Nino friendly with anyone else, and/or why wasn't anyone else friendly with him?


	18. 2019 Dec 2: Ladynoir, calculated to amuse her partner without his noticing she's deprecating herself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Dec 2](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/189444992580/ladybug-describing-herself-crazy-cat-lady)

Ladybug describing herself:

"crazy cat lady"


	19. 2019 Dec 8: multi-wielding Miraculouses, neuroplasticity, and Master Fu's low-sodium diet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Dec 8](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/189567147800/multi-wielding-miraculouses-neuroplasticity-and)

wielding multiple Miraculouses had some physical effects on Marinette in "Kwamibuster"; those effects were described as unusually light, especially considering at one point she was transformed with four of them at once and had like twelve more on her person

(and simply passively holding a Miraculous doesn't seem to count for anything; this was an active step)

since both the earrings and ring are required for the Wish, it is implied that being transformed with both at the same time is a key component

* what are the _usual_ physical effects on the wielder of dual-wielding?

* just how much more dangerous is it to dual-wield _these_ two?

(is Gabriel's life as the price of Émilie's even _possible_ , if Gabriel is dual-wielding Ladybug and Cat when the debt comes due?)

* _why_ were the effects on Marinette unusually light? would they be so for Adrien as well?

.

a lot of things are easier for people to learn before they're adults than after, because neuroplasticity

and we keep talking about the animal characteristics Adrien (and Marinette, and occasionally the other teen wielders) pick up from wielding Miraculouses

(I've never seen anyone speculate on Nathalie, and rarely on Gabriel)

(I've previously theorized that Adrien gets lots of cat traits because he is 100% for being a cat; Marinette gets some ladybug traits because she's not opposed to the notion of being a ladybug—esp if taking on the animal traits makes her a better Ladybug—but she's not thrilled by the notion either; and Gabriel gets zero butterfly traits because he is strongly opposed to losing his humanity, though he is defining that in terms of _human_ , where Marinette and Adrien are defining it in terms of _humane_ )

and we keep salting on Master Fu for choosing teens

—what if that's the _point_?

teens have more flexible neurology than adults; whatever changes Miraculous wielding imposes, teens take to them better than adults; more frequent transformations accelerate the changes

and for at least a few hundred years before the Temple of the Guardians went down, _nobody_ transformed as frequently as Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Hawkmoth have been doing for the past year and a half

and not much of anybody transformed as young as Ladybug and Chat Noir are

.

of _course_ Marinette wasn't hit that hard by transforming with four Miraculouses at once (since one of them was Rat and that way she was able to keep Ladybug and Cat separated)

of course Dragon Bug, Snake Noir, and Aspik didn't have problems

we should probably expect to learn in early S4 that Chloé _did_ feel weak or whatever after Miracle Queen, but we shouldn't be surprised if she _didn't_ ; she was at most fifteen the first time she transformed too, and she's done so several times in the past several months: festooning herself with Miraculouses might actually _not_ knock her over the way it would Hawkmoth, or the way it would a teen who'd never wielded any

and Marinette has an edge on Adrien, I'm sure, but—

—precisely _because_ they have been transforming at least once weekly for a year and a half, and _because_ they started in their early teens—

—these are the two most magically capable people the world has seen in a _long_ time

(see also: why Chat Blanc is such a _cosmic_ potential disaster)


	20. 2019 Dec 8: Fu still created and abandoned child soldiers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Dec 8](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/189567314745/fu-still-shouldnt-have-chosen-teens-and-not-told)

Fu still shouldn't have chosen teens and not told them anything for months

like there are ethics around consent, okay, and around contractual obligations

there is basically no way Marinette knew what she was getting into even a little

Adrien probably came in with many misconceptions

Tikki and Plagg are demonstrably magically restricted in what they can tell anyone, and deliberately ignorant of important bits of what they could talk about if they knew it: as mentors they're far better than nothing, but they're also a ways from ideal

I know exactly what I just metaed and why it makes sense that Fu chose teens

and he still should not have done what he did


	21. 2019 Dec 9: the effects on Chloé and Nathalie of overusing Miraculouses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2019 Dec 9](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/189583755985/the-physical-effects-on-marinette-from). Starting with the paragraph beginning "After Miracle Queen", it's kind of more fic prompt than meta.

the physical effects on Marinette from transforming with four Miraculouses at once and having twelve more active were, we're told, unusually light. it must however be noted that we probably did not see most of the effects, as there wasn't much screen time in "Kwamibuster" after she pulled the real Miraculous Cure, and she was at least mostly recovered by the start of the next episode.

Chloé was transformed with one Miraculous and under the power of another, and had eleven more active. we did not see any effects, but we also did not see more than twenty seconds of Chloé afterward.

the broken Peacock's effects on Nathalie are physical and dramatic, and her symptoms match Émilie's closely enough that Adrien noticed.

Adrien probably thinks Émilie is dead. the circumstances of her death are a mystery, as is why no one has found her remains to confirm, but she must have been worse off before her disappearance than Nathalie is now. probably worse enough that he was afraid at multiple points he would watch her die.

suppose the reason for the health dangers of wielding multiple Miraculouses is it takes a certain amount of—call it life force, I suppose—to have one active. how much life force anyone has at any given time varies depending on things like "have you eaten today", "how well did you sleep last night", and "how habitually active are you".

(and yes, I know that last especially sounds distinctly ableist, they say while staring at the living room carpet they've been wanting to vacuum for weeks but haven't because getting ten square feet vacuumed will knock them on their ass for a day and a half and there's more than ten square feet of living room carpet. it remains a fact that people who do half an hour of strength exercises, flexibility exercises, or cardio three times a week have more strength, flexibility, or stamina respectively than people who don't exercise.)

transforming takes a larger amount of life force for the duration of the transformation than simply having the Miraculous active for that same duration does. relatedly, the five-minute limit after use of Lucky Charm, Cataclysm, Mirage, etc is a safety precaution the kwamis insist upon, not a hard limit; it can sort of be ignored at will. mostly the kwamis' will, but not entirely, and that's something the kwamis habitually don't tell their wielders.

(Wayzz ignored it in order to keep Jade Turtle's Shellter up longer, since Hawkmoth was, after all, _right_ there. Tikki, at least, if not also Plagg, is increasingly lax about reminding their kids it's even a thing. Gabriel and Nathalie either don't know about this precaution or ordered Nooroo and Duusu not even to attempt to enforce it, and I suspect the latter, though how Gabriel got the idea that age is relevant here I _don't_ know.)

the risk of multi-wielding is the Miraculouses needing more life force than the wielder can safely do without. the more Miraculouses involved, the riskier it gets.

the problem with the broken Peacock specifically is wielding it takes far more life force than it ought.

after Miracle Queen, Marinette is absolutely not going to have any more time or sympathy for Chloé than she does for Lila.

but Marinette knows from personal experience what the symptoms of over-wielding feel like, and has undoubtedly heard from Master Fu (more after "Kwamibuster" than before) several accounts of more severe symptoms than hers. Chloé will probably be worst ill immediately after Miracle Queen and recover over time, unless she somehow gets hold of a Miraculous again, and (if she doesn't realize the Miraculouses are relevant here) she will not hide her symptoms. Marinette will know what's wrong.

and Adrien won't want to deal with Chloé any more than he wants to deal with Lila.

but Adrien will observe the similarity of Chloé's symptoms to Émilie's then and to Nathalie's now.


	22. 2020 Jan 13: five Juleka Couffaine headcanons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 13](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190134836575/juleka-coffinane)

1) everyone's already on board the Tiger!Juleka train from analysis of those second-opening-sequence screencaps, right? (also because color-coded.) well, Tiger suits Juleka because she can _roar_ when she's a mind to and because _I'm not standing still, I am lying in wait_.

2) she's gonna have so much fun with that mask if she gets half a chance to. Rose will swoon.

3) neither Juleka nor Luka actually knows who either of their fathers is, just that they don't have the same one.

4) someday she will figure out a way to show Luka how much she appreciates everything he's given up to make sure _somebody_ on this boat is taking care of her. Luka keeps telling her the correct answer to this is "live your dreams and be happy, possibly not in that order"; she isn't sure she believes him.

5) have an illustrative excerpt from _where the firelight fades_ :

> [Juleka] is, after all, the same person who—probably because she needs to describe her girlfriend as her BFF around anyone who might possibly mention the fact to Rose's parents ever—described what she as Reflekta planned to do to Rose as making them look _like twin sisters forever_. Given how Alya upset Juleka in the first place and why, Alya would have expected Reflekta to say something more like _couple outfits_.


	23. 2020 Jan 13: contemporary media references

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 13](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190244608645/in-mlverse-macgyver-is-a-dated-reference-the)

in MLverse, "Macgyver" is a dated reference

the current equivalent is "Ladybug"

(I don't know how that's going to conjugate, though; "Macgyvered" and "Macgyvering" sound sensible in ways "Ladybugged" and "Ladybugging" kinda don't)


	24. 2020 Jan 14: Adrien's 'feather' allergy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 14](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190260531965/on-adriens-feather-allergy)

According to [Daniel Jackson, MD, of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology](https://www.aaaai.org/ask-the-expert/feather) (and yes, a good fraction of my fannish history being _Stargate SG-1_ –adjacent, I am laughing), citing 1998 research, feather allergies are exceedingly rare. [WebMD's page on pet allergy triggers](https://www.webmd.com/allergies/pet-allergies-triggers) suggests what Adrien is allergic to is not feathers but bird dander or mites.


	25. 2020 Jan 27: Adrien in "Syren"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 27](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190505223210/so-why-do-people-think-adrien-was-harming-or)

so why do people think Adrien was harming or threatening to harm anyone in "Syren"?

every time he raises a legitimate concern to his father, Adrien gets shut down as being overdramatic. every time to this point that he raises a legitimate concern to Ladybug, he gets shut down for reasons that she hardly even tries to explain. ( _we_ know she's trying to protect Fu, the other kwamis and Miraculouses, and all of Paris, and special highlight to Alya—and Alya's family and Alya's friends—in the specific case of the first bit of "Syren", the best way she knows how. _Adrien_ knows no such thing.) and every time he raises a legitimate concern to his father, Adrien gets shut down as being overdramatic. I feel that bears a lot of repeating, because Adrien has trouble judging when things that hurt him are worth anyone caring about, and Gabriel's attitude toward things Adrien says hurt him is _exactly why_.

 _of course_ Adrien thinks he has to go big in order for anyone to notice something's wrong on his end: all his reasonable approaches get ignored!

and it's not like Rena Rouge wasn't right there that morning. worst-case scenario he can think of is Plagg delivers the ring to Ladybug, Ladybug and Rena Noire save Paris, everybody except Adrien goes home happy. the idea of Ladybug fighting Syren on her own isn't even on the radar. and while "Ladybug fighting Syren on her own" does sound like a losing proposition? compared to "Ladybug plus Chat Noir plus whatever it is Ladybug isn't telling Chat Noir about", "Ladybug plus _Rena Noire_ plus whatever it is Ladybug isn't telling Chat Noir about" probably sounds to Adrien like Ladybug will think it's an upgrade!

(gotta remember _Adrien_ doesn't know, and possibly still doesn't know as of "Miracle Queen", that under some circumstances, taking the Miraculous off makes the kwami vanish. and why would he think it might, when it's only come off so far in "Lady Wifi" and "Dark Owl" and Plagg vanished neither time? and I'll bet Ladybug hasn't ‘fessed up about in between Origins 1 and 2 to _anybody_ , even as of post-S3! to Adrien, therefore, "Plagg delivers the ring to Ladybug so she can choose a Black Cat wielder she likes better" _doesn't_ have an obvious hole two words in!)

Ladybug did choose Rena Rouge, after all. Ladybug _didn't_ choose Chat Noir. at least as of mid-"Syren", it is _not unreasonable_ for him to think Ladybug trusts Rena Rouge more than she does Chat Noir!


	26. 2020 Jan 28: deadnaming the oldest Césaire sibling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 28](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190513013365/when-you-said-that-in-anansi-hawkmoth-is-the)

> _anonymous ask:_ When you said that in "Anansi" Hawkmoth is the only one who doesn't deadname the titular character, you mean everyone else addresses her as Nora, rather than her wrestling persona? You're not arguing that akumas should only be addressed under their akuma name rather than their "real one" e.g. Lady Wifi as Alya?

I'm saying it sounds to me like "Anansi" is their real name and "Nora" is just the thing on their birth certificate. You will notice Hawkmoth did not name this akuma.

Feel free to go on with the understanding that "Nora" is both her real and legal name and "Anansi" is just her wrestling persona and, separately, her akumasona. Canon does not exactly contradict this understanding. (Unlike with Marc Anciel, where if anyone claims he's a cis boy, I have deuterocanon to point out to them, which tweets illuminate artistic intent in matters implied onscreen that the networks were never going to let be stated outright.)

Me? I know what it feels like when one's family deadnames one.


	27. 2020 Jan 28: how did Ladynoire know Reflekdoll was a sentimonster?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 28](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190527503170/alexseanchai-hey-did-we-ever-get-a-clear-answer)

hey did we ever get a clear answer on how Ladynoire in "Reflekdoll" knows that's a sentimonster Reflekta's piloting?

I mean, it is _logical_ (esp if she knows for a fact that only one purple butterfly can be out at a time) that the Peacock wielder is providing a second opponent, because

• Reflekdoll can't be filed under the same purple butterfly as Reflekta; this isn't like Sapotis, Princess Fragrance, Darkblade, or Heroes' Day, where the multiple opponents are all courtesy the same purple butterfly (though re Heroes' Day they never saw _any_ purple butterflies, just the red ones)

• they know from Heroes' Day that the Peacock wielder is working with Hawkmoth

but Ladynoire sounds _awfully_ certain that Reflekdoll is a sentimonster created by the Peacock wielder's amok, _before_ breaking the hair clip and proving herself correct

and like I have (mutually contradictory) ideas about how Ladynoire knows enough more about the situation than either Mister Bug or the viewers that she's confident in that declaration?

○ Fu has been expecting sentimonsters to start joining the fun since Heroes' Day and he told Marinette the other day he's nervous none have showed (so she does not know but she has more reason to believe it makes sense)

○ being Ladybug has given her sharper sixth senses and Reflekdoll pings exactly like that big ugly purple moth did

○ if they had their own Miraculouses for this battle, Ladybug would be guessing this is a sentimonster for various above reasons, while Chat Noir would _know_

…but none of that is a clear answer


	28. 2020 Jan 28: Miraculous spells and how they're cast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jan 28](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190529018455/lucky-charm-yo-yo-weapon-cataclysm-ring)

Lucky Charm: yo-yo (weapon)

Cataclysm: ring (Miraculous)

Mirage: flute (weapon)

Shellter: shield (weapon)

Venom: top (weapon)

purplifying a butterfly into an akumafly for long-distance use: glowy hand

bluifying a feather into an amok for long-distance use: glowy hand

Second Chance: bracelet (Miraculous)

Voyage: circular gesture (transportation)

Multiply: jump rope (weapon)

Water / Wind / [Lightning? Thunder?] Dragon: armor symbol (transmutation)

Burrow: circular gesture (transportation)

Uproar: staff (weapon)


	29. 2020 Feb 2: Adrien's analysis after "Prime Queen" of the photo from "Dark Cupid"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Feb 2](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/190612520780/image-screencap-from-prime-queen-in-which)

okay but think about how Adrien felt when he figured out what's going on in this photo

not _during_ Prime Queen, there wasn't time then for anything more than boggling at the notion that Ladybug kissed him and he doesn't remember it

maybe not even _right after_ Prime Queen, maybe none of the times he stared at the photo for the next month trying to figure out what was happening here other than Ladybug kissing him

when he found out, or figured out, this photo was taken during _Dark Cupid_

look where Ladybug's hands are

on his face, both of them

look where _Chat Noir_ 's hands are

we don't know from this single photo, do we

Adrien knows he used Cataclysm in that battle

he does not remember preparing to: it was already in his hand when he snapped back to reality

the kiss, Ladybug said, was to _save_ him

Cataclysm was already in his hand when she kissed him

Ladybug did not have hold of his wrist when she kissed him

whoever got this photo must have seen more than what's in the photo

so did the photographer frame the shot to show only the kiss?

or did the photographer—or Nadja Chamack—crop out the part where Chat Noir was three millimeters from killing Ladybug?


	30. 2020 Mar 11: the space magicaron & magicamembert are black with silver sparkly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Mar 11](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/612332992533331968/the-space-magicaron-magicamembert-are-black-with). Watching the "New Powers" _Miraculous Secrets_ webisode first is advised.

Marinette, or possibly Marinette and Adrien working together (or Ladybug and Chat Noir, I suppose, if we _must_ stay pre-reveal), is who invents the space power-up. Because all the recipes Fu used, he either learned by heart before the Temple fell, or he was working off a grimoire page written before the Temple fell.

The Temple fell before the _Wright brothers_ , okay, the only Guardians who _both_ know anything about Yuri Gagarin et seq and have been in contact with at least one of Fu and Marinette since the Temple fell _are Fu and Marinette_! [and Adrien!] The aqua power-up was invented by someone who liked swimming and who observed fish; the ice power-up was invented by someone who liked ice skating; both those recipes might be thousands of years old. I imagine there's an air power-up invented by someone who observed birds and wanted to be one; I imagine there's a fire power-up, the recipe refined over time as the Order learned more about how the standard armor needed to be altered in order to make it safe for a wielder to run into a burning building; while it is obviously possible for Miraculous magic to take people to space (see "Startrain"), prior to the first spaceflight, who was going to make enough of an experiment of it to figure out how changing the magic armor could make that environment survivable?

In related news, Ladybug and Chat Noir being the first ever Miraculous wielders who grew up using smartphones, they are also the first ever Miraculous wielders to have smartphone capabilities in their weapons. (Hawkmoth and Mayura may now have those too, but Hawkmoth started with and Peacock!Emilie only ever had something more like a basic, probably not-even-texting-capable, mobile phone. Though my first thought was two-way radio.) Those user manuals Ladybug and Chat Noir used in "Oblivio", that are only accessible via the smartphone capabilities of their weapons? _They themselves_ wrote those! Marinette's already a diarist, after all, and she would certainly like to have had the chance to study the user guide before first facing Stoneheart; typing up at least the parts future Ladybugs could definitely use in a way only future Ladybugs ought to be able to access doesn’t seem like a stretch.


	31. 2020 Apr 6: August's mother's feminist praxis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Apr 6](https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/head-canon/105807/31)
> 
> also: finally, a fanwork about her that isn't [this adobsonartworks comic](https://adobsonartworks.tumblr.com/post/184991050045/having-your-baby-akumatized-so-often-must-be)! (I am surprised and pleased to discover her AO3 character tag is already canonical.)

August's mother, who I've named Pauline Leclair just to have something to call the poor woman that isn't "August's mother", is a single mom who moved to Paris shortly after the Stoneheart attack, in order to get herself and her infant son away from her husband/boyfriend/whatever; she prefers her kid grow up with no father than with an abusive one. The problem, she knows, with abusive people generally—abusive men in particular—is that society as a whole prefers to defend them and excuse them rather than deter them and protect everyone else; the best way, she believes, to make sure her baby boy doesn't grow up to be an abusive man is to raise him right. Make sure he knows how wrong it is to hurt others, that he is neither superior nor inferior to anyone else, and that he is entitled to far less from others than men typically believe themselves entitled to.

This is not a strategy that would work if she were raising him anywhere her ex knew where to find them. Pauline had second thoughts about moving _because_ of the Stoneheart attack. She went through with it anyway, figuring at first that Paris was still the best of a bad lot of options, and later that neither she nor August was likely to be akumatized. Hawkmoth didn't seem to be going after anyone younger than thirteen.

Pauline may have had a small heart attack when she heard the rumor that Hawkmoth akumatized the small daughter of one of the better-known local TV reporters. But no one had any evidence of that, or not that they were admitting to having, and someone _did_ get video onto the internet of the Ladyblogger being reakumatized (however weirdly; no one saw that butterfly), so Pauline didn't entirely believe it. Anyway, by then they were dozens of akuma attacks in, and even if one of the akumatized people _was_ six years old, Hawkmoth clearly wasn't making a habit of going for overstressed single moms, or for kids who missed their nap.

Then Hawkmoth akumatized August.

Then Heroes' Day happened, and everyone who thought people who got akumatized once were safe thereafter, and everyone who was certain akuma attacks could be consecutive but not concurrent, had a panic attack or three.

Then August got akumatized _again_. Over waking up hungry at midnight and Pauline not getting him a snack fast enough. When the first time was because she wasn't allowing her one-year-old son a lollipop.

And Pauline—and this intensified a month later after one of the first sentimonster attacks, when Mayura used August's emotions over being denied another lollipop to spawn the thing, demonstrating August was firmly on Hawkmoth's favorite-tools list—Pauline started to worry that it isn't _possible_ for her to be a good enough parent.

After all, if August grew up _knowing_ that others upsetting him often meant either his growing much larger and stronger, much more easily able to take what he liked or frighten others into giving it to him, or his acquiring a larger, stronger companion who could do that for him? If August grew up—and Pauline has already seen something of this dynamic in action: people fearing to upset others because the upset one might be akumatized and come after them, this meaning people fearing more than usual to upset their abusers more often than people taking thought for the needs and emotions of others and making greater effort to behave compassionately—

If August grew up with people catering to him for fear of what he might do—

She ran away from her ex with August in her arms in order to _avoid exactly this_!


	32. 2020 Apr 28: super newbie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Apr 28](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/616627908877877248/why-have-we-been-thinking-alya-is-new-to-college)

Why have we been thinking Alya is new to College Françoise Dupont as of Origins?

 _Marinette_ didn't recognize her. Nor did Chloé. (At least, not that either remembered, and Chloé [says she] didn't know who Lila was until "Miraculer" even though by then Lila'd been in the same classroom for a third of the season.) Not sure if anyone else in the class didn't recognize Alya or just didn't interact with Alya in Origins.

But leaving Adrien and Alya aside, the people who were in Mme. Bustier's class as of Origins who were _not_ (per "Reflekta") the previous year? Ivan. Mylène. Alix. Possibly Nino: maybe he was absent on picture day, and maybe Mme. Bustier told him in Origins to sit up front because she'd conferred with whoever Nino's teacher had been.

And if there's 44 girls in their year (per Alya in "Pharaoh", so Lila is the only one not counted), and they're in the fourth year of a four-year school, then the whole school is ~360 students. That might be a bit many to expect Marinette to recognize every one of them by name and face. Even sticking to students in her year alone, that's about ninety, which is a lot.

(I promise you I never knew the name of a single person in any school I attended if they were never in the same classroom as me. And even then the only classmates whose names I knew were the talkative ones.)

Granted Alya is a bit loud to miss. But it is possible that Alya was not new to the school that year. Just new to Chloé's class.


	33. 2020 Jun 26: baker's hours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2020 Jun 26

just saw these tags on an AU-off-"Chat Blanc" post: #imagine the drama #and how it reflects on the dangers of Time manipulation

meanwhile I'm here thinking the explanation that makes sense to Ladybug of why the Rabbit shouldn't be used much is cut-out cookies

like, yeah, if you screw up you can put the misshapen dough back with the rest of the dough and roll it out again and go at it with the cookie cutter again, but you don't have infinite do-overs before the cookies end up distinctly overworked


	34. 2020 Jul 27: the wax museum ruined his design!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> noirchengs: "so exactly how did the staff in the wax museum get hawkmoth's exact measurements to make a statue of him?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2020 Jul 27](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/624816550751485952/they-had-footage-of-him-from-heroes-day-thanks)

Paris has footage of Hawkmoth from Heroes' Day, thanks to Prime Queen. And Musée Grévin couldn’t have gotten measurements for a lot of the akumas except by guesstimating from the videos.

So my thought is—while (obviously and for sensible reasons, such as "let's not confuse the kiddos" and "we don’t have the budget to spend hours tweaking models for NPC Parisians, never mind this!") the animators made no effort to make any of the wax statues look different from the originals—none of the statues are entirely true to life. Most of them don't even look glaringly wrong to people who saw the originals up close.

Hawkmoth, though. The only recorded images of him as of making that statue were in fact from Heroes' Day. When he, like every single akuma that day, was bright red.

The artist who designed the Hawkmoth statue did her best. She really did. Extrapolating Hawkmoth's suit's colors from those of the akumaflies makes perfect sense, really.

Adrien is still a little embarrassed that he saw Hawkmoth with a black helmet and a much darker purple suit, matching the wax statue he'd just seen and not the real deal he remembers, and acted to protect Marinette exactly as he would have had that been the real deal.

**Author's Note:**

> [My comment policy](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/612627045048008704/as-a-fic-writer-i-need-every-reader-to-know): tl;dr happy comments make me happy. So do thinky comments, of course, but there exist jerks who think only thinky comments are worth anyone leaving.
> 
> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


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